Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Logistics: Charging Points

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of (1) the cost of installing energy connections, and (2) the time taken to install energy connections, on the introduction of depot charging facilities at logistics sites.

Lord Callanan: Ofgem has decided that electricity demand customers, such as depot charging facilities at logistics sites, submitting a connection application after 1 April 2023, will no longer be charged for any distribution network reinforcement costs to accommodate their connection. Additionally, the Government is working with Ofgem and network companies to release network capacity and improve the connections process, which will reduce connection timescales, including potentially for depot charging facilities. The Government will publish a connections action plan in the summer.

Treasury

Bank Services: Companies

Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made any assessment of the impact of regulation on the ease with which companies can open bank accounts; and whether there is a detrimental impact on investment.

Baroness Penn: Access to banking facilities is important for the economy. The provision of banking services is a commercial decision for firms based on a variety of factors, including the local law, regulation of individual countries, an assessment of profitability, or other commercial drivers. The Government regularly engages with industry to understand the impacts of regulation on businesses’ ability to access banking services. That is why, for example, in last year’s review of the Money Laundering Regulations, the Government committed to consult on options aiming to address the difficulties for businesses in accessing Pooled Client Accounts, including broadening the range of low-risk circumstances in which these accounts may be provided without checks being required on the clients whose funds are held in the account. As committed to in the second Economic Crime Plan, this consultation on changes to the Money Laundering Regulations will begin by the end of this year. I would encourage businesses seeking a bank account to explore the Business Current Account (BCA) finder tool developed by UK Finance, designed to help businesses compare the full range of bank accounts available and find products that best suit their needs My officials will continue to engage with industry to understand any emerging issues and assess any impact on investment as a result.

Enterprise Investment Scheme

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to update theEnterprise Investment Scheme for the 2023/24 tax year, in order to support new businesses and start-ups.

Baroness Penn: The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) continues to be available to help incentivise and support investment into early-stage, higher risk unquoted companies over the coming tax year. The amount of EIS funding that companies can raise remains at a generous £5 million each year and a maximum of £12 million over their lifetime, or £10 million and £20 million respectively for knowledge intensive companies.

Duty Free Allowances: Northern Ireland

Baroness Hoey: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Penn on 4 May (HL7280), which airlines fly from Belfast to the Republic of Ireland; and if there are none, why passengersflying from Belfast to EU countries are not eligible for duty free like passengers from the rest of the UK.

Baroness Penn: As of March 2023, no airlines offered scheduled services from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland.On the issue of passengers flying from Belfast to the European Union not having access to duty-free, Northern Ireland enjoys frictionless trade with both the rest of the United Kingdom and the EU. The government is committed to ensuring that remains the case.Enabling duty-free shopping between the EU – which includes Ireland - and Northern Ireland without also introducing border controls would lead to significant distortions of trade on the island of Ireland as well as a significant revenue loss for both UK and Ireland by creating a legal route for unlimited amounts of alcohol and tobacco to flow into the UK market duty-free.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Lord Truscott: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Penn on 22 February (HL5634), how much it would cost the taxpayer to equalise the VAT rate for public charging (20 per cent) and home charging (5 per cent) for electric vehicles.

Baroness Penn: As noted in the Written Answer of 22 February, the Government has no plans to change the VAT treatment of EV charging. The practical challenges of differentiating between the electricity used at home for general domestic purposes and the electricity used to charge electric vehicles (EVs) currently means that the reduced rate VAT relief for supplies of domestic energy is effectively being applied to EV charging at home. Given those practical challenges the Government has not estimated the additional cost to taxpayers from increasing the rate of VAT applied to home EV charging. The fiscal cost of introducing a new relief, to reduce the rate of VAT applied to public charging, would likely depend on a range of factors including the level of EV take-up, driver behaviour and the comparative energy costs for home and public charging, which can vary significantly. Introducing such relief would likely have a large fiscal cost, which would grow over time as use of EVs increases.

Logistics: Business Rates

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of theimpact of business rate increases on warehousing on the efficiency of the UK’s logistics network.

Baroness Penn: It is important that revaluations are undertaken periodically to maintain accuracy and fairness in the business rates system. Updating rateable values ensures bills more closely reflect the property market and means the burden of rates is fairly redistributed across all properties. While this will result in bill increases for some ratepayers, the Government is introducing a support package worth £13.6 billion over the next five years to help ratepayers transition to new bills, including:a freeze to the business rates multiplier for 2023-2024, a tax cut worth £9.3 billion over the next 5 years, meaning all bills are 6 per cent lower than without the freeze.an Exchequer funded Transitional Relief scheme worth £1.6 billion to protect an estimated 700,000 ratepayers facing bill increases due to increases in rateable value.

Attorney General

Human Trafficking: Prosecutions

Lord McColl of Dulwich: To ask His Majesty's Government howmany people have been (1) prosecuted, and (2) convicted, for offences of people smuggling under the Immigration Act 1971, for each of the past five years.

Lord Stewart of Dirleton: The Immigration Act 1971 contains offences (including those created by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022) for assisting and facilitating unlawful immigration into the United Kingdom.The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold any data which shows the number of defendants in England and Wales charged with, prosecuted and convicted for people smuggling offences created by the Immigration Act 1971.However, management information for England and Wales is held showing the number of offences charged by way of S25 (Assisting unlawful immigration to member State or the United Kingdom), S25A (Helping an asylum-seeker to enter United Kingdom) and S25B (Assisting entry to United Kingdom in breach of deportation or exclusion order) of the Immigration Act 1971 in which a prosecution commenced in each of the last five years. The table below shows the number of these offences to the latest available year, 2022, in England and Wales.  20182019202020212022Immigration Act 1971 {25}309291139249155Immigration Act 1971 {25A}8521346Immigration Act 1971 {25B}10050Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data is held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

Human Trafficking: Prosecutions

Lord McColl of Dulwich: To ask His Majesty's Government, how many peoplehave been (1) prosecuted, and (2) convicted, for offences of human trafficking in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, for each of the past five years.

Lord Stewart of Dirleton: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds no data showing the number of convictions for human trafficking offences in England and Wales under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. However, data is held showing the number of defendants prosecuted and convicted where the human trafficking monitoring flag has been applied to case records. The table below shows the number of prosecutions and convictions for defendants during each of the last five years in England and Wales.  20182019202020212022Prosecuted294349267466405Convicted191251197332282Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System

Department for Business and Trade

Trade Unions

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the levels of (1) collective bargaining coverage, and (2) trade union membership, in the UK; and what steps they are taking, if any, to increase those levels.

The Earl of Minto: In the UK, collective bargaining is largely a matter for individual employers, their employees and their trade unions. Most collective bargaining in the UK takes place because employers have voluntarily agreed to recognise a trade union and bargain with it. Where an employer refuses to recognise a union voluntarily, the union can apply to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) for statutory union recognition. This will be granted so long as the union can demonstrate majority support in the workplace. The latest Trade Union Membership Statistics publication shows that an estimated 6.4 million employees were trade union members in the United Kingdom at the end of 2021. Statistics from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings show an estimated 41% of employee jobs in the UK had their pay set with reference to a collective agreement in 2021.

Minimum Wage: Enforcement

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the detection rate for underpayment of the National Minimum Wage by employers; what incentives there are to ensure that employers comply with the National Minimum Wage; and what action they are taking to enforce compliance with, and to prevent underpayment of, the National Minimum Wage.

The Earl of Minto: In 2021/22, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) concluded over 2,800 minimum wage investigations and returned more than £16.3m in arrears to over 120,000 workers. HMRC issued 696 fines totalling £13.2m to businesses who had failed to pay the minimum wage. Where there has been an underpayment, HMRC will instruct the employer to pay workers the arrears owed, and a penalty of up to 200% of arrears.HMRC’s Promote team issued 7.8 million advisory notices to workers, employers, and their agents increasing awareness of the rules. Since 2015, the Government has ordered employers to repay over £100 million to over 1 million workers.

UK Endorsement Board: Disclosure of Information

Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted: To ask His Majesty's Government why the website of the UK Endorsement Board for accounting standards shows it has been supporting reduced disclosures applicable to Companies House-filed accounts, given that the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill is amending the Companies Act accounting exemptions so as to increase the disclosure of financial information to help deal with financial crime.

The Earl of Minto: The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill removes exemptions from filing accounts for small and micro entities rather than amend the content of those accounts, as determined by international accounting standards or UK accounting standards. The UK Endorsement Board’s publication commented on the proposals for a new international accounting standard set out in the Exposure Draft Subsidiaries without Public Accountability. These proposals would permit eligible subsidiaries to apply international accounting standards with some reduced disclosure requirements. The proposed international accounting standard should reduce costs and complexity for eligible subsidiaries but continues to require more disclosures than the equivalent UK accounting standard.

Department for Education

Teachers: Training

Lord Addington: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to theITT core content framework and early career framework: call for evidence consultation, which closed on 21 April, what criteria they will use to assess the evidence presented and include it in the updated framework.

Baroness Barran: In partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and panels of experts, the department is reviewing the evidence base of the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework (CCF) and Early Career Framework (ECF). To support this work, the department published a call for evidence to identify additional recent, relevant and high-quality research that may inform amendments to the existing CCF and ECF.Evidence submitted will be considered by the Department and EEF on the basis of whether it is robust, relevant and helpfully supplements the existing evidence cited in the frameworks. The EEF will provide a quality assessment on submitted evidence, particular attention will be paid to the methodology, effect of any study, and the relevance of the source to UK classroom contexts.These standards already underpin the CCF, ECF and National Professional Qualifications frameworks, ensuring framework statements are based on the latest and most robust evidence.

Children Act 1989

Lord Touhig: To ask His Majesty's Government whether section 20 of the Children Act 1989 allows local authorities to delegate their duties under that section for child protection to other public bodies.

Baroness Barran: Local authorities have a duty to provide services to all children in need in their area. Under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities are under a statutory obligation to provide accommodation to children when the criteria in Section 20(1) is met.It is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that the duty to accommodate is met. Whilst the local authority can make arrangements with other persons to act on their behalf by providing certain services, including the provision of accommodation, the local authority is still responsible for meeting the duty under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989, and for anything that flows from a child being accommodated by the local authority.

Schools: Absenteeism

Baroness Twycross: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they haveconsidered the case for requiring schools to share their pupil absences data with local councils.

Baroness Barran: Government guidance sets out that schools of all types, Local Authorities and other local partners should work jointly and share data on individual cases where it is of benefit to the pupil.Under Regulation 12 of The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, all schools are required to share pupil absence data with Local Authorities for pupils who fail to attend school regularly or have been absent from school for a continuous period of ten or more school days. Local Authorities also have access to state funded schools’ attendance data under The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013, which underpin the school census data collection.Local Authorities can also access near real time attendance data from state funded schools that are voluntarily sharing daily attendance data. Approximately 80% of these schools have opted to share daily data. This data is automatically extracted and returned in the form of interactive reports to the school and relevant multi academy trust and Local Authority.

Teachers: Training

Lord Addington: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to theITT core content framework and early career framework: call for evidence consultation, which closed on 21 April, when updates to the ITT core content and early career framework will be published.

Baroness Barran: The Department is conducting a review of the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework and Early Career Framework together this year. This review began in January 2023 and is aiming to conclude by the end of 2023.

Special Educational Needs: Training

Lord Addington: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which trainees and early career teachers understand thelegislative requirements, including their professional responsibilities, which relate to pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

Baroness Barran: The Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) has been designed with the knowledge that the quality of teaching is the most important factor in improving outcomes for pupils, particularly pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with additional needs.Careful consideration has been given to the needs of trainee teachers in relation to supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The early career framework (ECF) builds on that learning for early career teachers (ECTs). These reforms support the department’s ambition that all new teachers starting in the profession learn how to meet the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.The CCF sets out a minimum entitlement for trainee teachers and places a duty on ITT providers, and their partner schools, to meet this entitlement. In addition to the content detailed in the CCF, it remains a statutory requirement of providers to ensure that their curricula ensure trainees are fully aware of their duties in respect of safeguarding and equalities legislation.Courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5 that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.Part two of the Teachers’ Standards outlines that teachers must have an understanding of, and always act within, the statutory frameworks which set out their professional duties and responsibilities. To be recommended by an accredited provider for the award of qualified teacher status, trainees must demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. To pass induction, ECTs must demonstrate that they meet the Teachers' Standards through a formal assessment, signed off by their head teacher and independently checked by their appropriate body.The department is exploring opportunities to build teacher expertise through a review of the CCF and ECF. Aiming to conclude by the end of 2023, the review will identify how the frameworks can equip new teachers to be more confident in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND.

Schools: Mental Health Services and Pastoral Care

Baroness Twycross: To ask His Majesty's Government whetherthey have any plans toexpand pastoral and mental health support in schools to keep students in education.

Baroness Barran: The mental health of children is a government priority and we know schools can play a vital role in supporting this. The department is committed to helping all schools provide calm, safe and supportive environments that promote and support mental wellbeing, which can also support attendance, attainment and behaviour. It is up to schools to decide what pastoral support to put in place to support pupils.The government’s vision for improving school attendance is for pupils, parents, all schools, local authorities, and other partners to work together to prevent patterns of absence from developing. The department has issued guidance for schools, which highlights the importance of a ‘support first’ approach. The ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance makes clear that schools are expected to work with each identified pupil and their parents to understand and address the reasons for absence, including any in-school barriers to attendance. Where absence persists, schools are expected to take an active part in the multi-agency effort with the local authority and other partners. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.As set out in associated guidance specifically related to mental health and attendance, schools are not expected to diagnose or provide specialist mental health support, but they can play an important role in identifying and responding to emerging or existing mental health issues. This may include providing targeted pastoral support, or ensuring referrals are made to external specialist support.To help schools make informed decisions on what support to provide, the department is offering funding to all schools and colleges in England to train senior mental health leads who can put in place effective whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. More than 13,800 schools and colleges have now received a senior mental health lead training grant, including more than 7 in 10 state-funded secondary schools, backed by a £10 million investment in the 2022/23 financial year. The department is also providing over £1 billion recovery premium funding for schools for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years which, on top of pupil premium, can be used to support pupil mental wellbeing and attendance.To expand access to early mental health support, the department is working with NHS England to increase the number of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) working with schools and colleges. MHSTs offer support to children experiencing common mental health problems and liaise with external specialist services to help pupils get the right support and stay in education. As of April 2023, MHSTs covered 35% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England. A further 100 teams are expected to be operational by April 2024, to cover an estimated 44% of pupils and learners.

Cabinet Office

Civil Servants: Disclosure of Information

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government how many cases of whistleblowing were reported and investigated by the Civil Service in (1) 2022, (2) 2021, (3) 2020, and (4) 2019.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: We are made aware by departments annually, who also report on behalf of their agencies, of cases raised formally through whistleblowing procedures. We will be commissioning data for the 2022/23 period (April 2022-March 2023) from departments in June 2023. In 2021/22, 311 cases were formally raised and investigated in government departments. The concern was upheld in 30 cases. In 2020/21, 245 cases were formally raised and investigated in government departments. The concern was upheld in 13 cases. In 2019/20, 383 cases were formally raised and investigated in government departments. The concern was upheld in 33 cases. We do not ask departments for reports of informal cases.

Emergencies: Mobile Phones

Baroness Twycross: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the test of the UK’s emergency alert system on 23 April.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Last month’s UK-wide Emergency Alert was the largest simultaneous public message in British history. 88% of the public knew the test was coming and we reached 93% of eligible phones in the country within 3 minutes of the test alert being sent. The system is now fully operable in the event of a real emergency, and is a vital tool in our toolkit to keep people safe.We are aware that some people did not receive the test alert. There are several reasons why this may have been the case, which we are working with the Mobile Network Operators to resolve.However, we would like to reassure those who did not receive an alert that Emergency Alerts are just one of many tools the Government has to communicate with the public about emergency situations. Existing procedures for warning and informing the public remain in place, including the use of local emergency services and local/national news.

Emergencies: Mobile Phones

Baroness Twycross: To ask His Majesty's Government when theyforecast rolling out the UK’s emergency alert system.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Following the test on 23 April, the system is now fully operable. During the initial pilot phase, which started on 23 April and will last 3 months, alerts will be limited to severe weather events and flooding. However, future messages are also expected to include fires, public health emergencies and other life-threatening or major incidents.

Emergencies: Mobile Phones

Baroness Twycross: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total cost to date of developing, maintaining and testing the UK’s emergency alert system.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: I refer the Noble Baroness to the previous answer HL7733 on 24th May.

Emergencies: Mobile Phones

Lord Harris of Haringey: To ask His Majesty's Government what has been the total cost to date of developing, maintaining and testing the UK's emergency alert system; and what plans they have for further tests.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The total cost to date of developing the technical architecture and systems which underpin the emergency alert programme, in addition to the first three years of operational delivery, will be a maximum of £25.3 million. The contracts which are publicly available on contracts finder include: The Government Digital Service have a contract with Fujitsu for £1.6 million per year for a three year period, a potential total of £5 million assuming that the contract runs to completion;The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (as was) issued contracts totalling £18.6 million to mobile network operators, as well as further spending on security testing and legal work. The remaining costs were spent on security testing and legal fees. The specific figures are commercially sensitive and can therefore not be released to the public. There are no current plans for a further UK-wide, or public, test of the system, though it is likely that there will be further public tests in the coming years to ensure the system is operational to help keep the British people safe.

Home Office

Asylum: Children

Lord Scriven: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to theremarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 10 May (HL Deb, col 1924), what evidence they have collected since 2014 that leads them to conclude that excluding children from immigration detention would "incentivise the people smugglers" to target children to smuggle to the UK.

Lord Murray of Blidworth: The purpose of the Illegal Migration Bill is to prevent and deter all unlawful migration, and in particular migration by unsafe and illegal routes. Those who arrive illegally will be liable to detention and will be swiftly removed to their home country or to a safe third country.The organised people smuggling criminal gangs can be expected to exploit any exceptions or loopholes in the scheme provided for in the Bill, a point made by a number of noble Lords at Second Reading. An economic impact assessment will be published for the Bill in due course.

Human Trafficking: Prosecutions

The Lord Bishop of Southwark: To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions were undertaken of people smugglers in each of the last three years for which data are available.

Lord Murray of Blidworth: The Home Office works tirelessly, with other national and international law enforcement authorities, to tackle migrant smuggling gangs who organise and profit from illegal crossings and to bring to justice the ruthless criminals behind them.We are determined to go after the callous people smugglers who exploit vulnerable people in difficult circumstances and put them in life-threatening situations.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Iron and Steel: Redcar

Lord Scriven: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide an update on plans for the former Redcar Steelworks site, and (1) what recent assessment they have made of the terms of the original business case used to agree public funding, and (2) whether they have agreed any changes or amendments to that business case.

Lord Scriven: To ask His Majesty's Government which department took the decision to partner with South Tees Development Corporation for development of the former Redcar Steelworks site and, in making that decision, which procedures set out in 'The Green Book: Central Government Guidance on Appraisal and Evaluation' were not followed; and why.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: Further to the PNQ last week, the SSI steelworks in Redcar closed in September 2015, with the loss of more than 3100 jobs. The Government appointed Lord Heseltine to review how the economic fortunes of the area could be turned around, including through the redevelopment of the former SSI site. The Government accepted Lord Heseltine's recommendation in his report Tees Valley: Opportunity Unlimited that it should establish the first mayoral development corporation outside London, the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC).In 2020, the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) submitted a full business case to Government. The business case was developed and then approved in line with Green Book principles. The funding is governed by a memorandum of understanding between Government and TVCA, including quarterly monitoring reports on spend, risks and delivery.

Holiday Accommodation: Planning Permission

Lord Tyrie: To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the likely change in the total number of days of short-term lets resulting from the introduction of their proposed policyto make such lets subject to local planning permission.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: We are currently seeking views on the introduction of a short-term let use class and associated permitted development rights. The consultation may be found (attached) here. Consultation (pdf, 370.0KB)

Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom: Finance

The Lord Bishop of Leeds: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution of inter-faith engagement and cooperation to the Levelling Up agenda; and what plans they have, if any, to provide funding support towards the work of the Inter Faith Network, including for Inter Faith Week during 2023–24.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: The department continues to take steps to support inter-faith community cohesion. For example, this government is supporting Dame Sara Khan's independent review of Social Cohesion and Resilience which is due to report in the Autumn, and I am considering additional options to take forward.This department has provided funding to the Inter Faith Network since 2006/07. The Government considers a wide range of factors when deciding which projects to fund.The department monitors all funded organisations throughout the lifecycle of their project for the purposes of assessing delivery against workplan targets, compliance and evaluation, in line with best practice for the management of public funding.

Logistics: Planning Permission

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government whatmeasures are in place to encourage planning authorities to support planning applications for the UK’s logistics network, including (1) transport, (2) intermodal sites, (3) warehousing, and (4) other facilities.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that planning policies and decisions should help create the conditions in which businesses can invest, expand and adapt. Significant weight should be placed on the need to support economic growth and productivity, taking into account both local business needs and wider opportunities for development.The Framework also states that planning policies and decisions should recognise and address the specific locational requirements of different sectors. This includes making provision for clusters or networks for storage and distribution operations at a variety of scales and in suitably accessible locations.In support of this the Planning Practice Guidance states that the logistics industry plays a critical role in enabling an efficient, sustainable and effective supply of goods for consumers and businesses, as well as contributing to local employment opportunities, and has distinct locational requirements that need to be considered in formulating planning policies.

Department for Work and Pensions

Employment: Disability

Lord Addington: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Minister of State for the Department of Work and Pensions in evidence to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee on 3 May, when the root and branch review of the Disability Confident scheme will take place.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: In 2021, we began a review of the Disability Confident scheme which was announced in the National Disability Strategy (NDS). In January 2022, the High Court declared the NDS was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations. The Secretary of State wanted to minimise the risk of acting inconsistently with the Court’s declaration, therefore, we paused a limited number of policies referred to in the strategy, including work directly related to the Disability Confident review. The Secretary of State has successfully obtained permission to appeal this decision. The Court of Appeal hearing is due to take place on 28 and 29 June 2023. The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work is exploring what additional steps we can take, whilst respecting the Court’s decision and awaiting the outcome of the appeal.

Department for Transport

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government how much they have spent expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure in each year since 2018.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: Since financial year 2018/19, the Government has spent the following on supporting the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure:Year Total spend (£ million)*2018/19162019/20302020/21322021/2281Total159 *Total spend is rounded to the nearest £million and includes the following schemes: Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme, Workplace Charging Scheme, On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme and Taxi Infrastructure scheme. Details relating to 2022/23 Government grant spending will be available in due course.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Water: Pollution Control

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to theWater targets detailed evidence report, published on 6 May 2022,what progress they have made towards formally adopting the proposed nutrient pollution reduction targets.

Lord Benyon: On 19th December the Government laid The Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2022 Statutory instrument. This introduced legally-binding targets to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment loads from agriculture by 40% by 2038 against a 2018 baseline, and to reduce phosphorus loads from wastewater by 80% by 2038 against a 2020 baseline.